BT and AT&T axe 1,000 jobs

12:01AM BST 16 Oct 2001

BT and AT&T are shutting their loss making joint venture, Concert, with the loss of 1,000 jobs in the UK.

The long-awaited unwinding of the venture, which was aimed at serving large multinational business customers, will see Concert's assets divided between BT and US firm AT&T as each side takes back what they put in.

Concert was originally set up in June 1994 by BT and MCI, but after MCI was taken over by WorldCom, BT announced it was launching the Concert venture with AT&T.

However the venture has recently made heavy losses and has been hit by falling international price competition with the transformation of the telecoms marketplace.

BT chief executive Sir Peter Bonfield said: "Since Concert was conceived as an international venture, the global marketplace in our sector has changed out of all recognition and we need to change with it.